Outside the library, the soft sounds of soccer echoed.
Whoosh
The autumn breeze was getting uncomfortably chilly, so I closed the window I had opened for ventilation and sat back down.
Slide
I checked the illustration on the cover.
The protagonist, Yuki, was looking forward with tears in her eyes, while Alex loomed behind her, threateningly reaching out with a sinister smile.
I gently peeled off the cover and started reading the tattered light novel.
Rustle
“…That Alex is drawn way too well.”
I carefully admired the details of the illustration, checking the characters’ appearances.
I wanted to feel the vividness of the story they were about to create.
<Magical Girl HAZARD> Volume 5.
The group battle scenes with the magical girls in the second half of the story, plus the moment of awakening [Resurrection] were great, but…
“Volume 5 is still the best.”
It was the first time Yuki stood up not for her own survival, but to save someone.
[Magical girls… exist to protect everyone!]
She aimed to lure a massive airship to protect the survivors who had fled to Russia from the Scavengers.
[I’m… a magical girl…!]
Ultimately, Yuki, unable to match the overwhelming power of the Thousand Bloom 3-Star magical girl, fled to the realm of [Death], which could be seen as a rather frustrating ending, but…
Her willingness to lose everything for someone else’s sake was dazzling.
[We will definitely be happy!]
A story of a girl overcoming past pain, current timidness, and future anxieties while fighting for beauty.
There’s nothing to say when you mention that it was a story crafted by a bear-like uncle typing away for money, but…
‘What’s wrong with dreaming of good stories and cool characters?’
One page.
One page.
Thus, I cheered for Yuki as I followed her journey.
＊
Gasp… Gasp…!
How long had I been running?
A warp gate that couldn’t be set up in Europe.
The trail had been cut off since entering Korea on my passport.
Unfinished matters swirled in my mind, but for now, I was just running.
‘Sorry…!’
I hastily returned to Japan via the already established gate.
Rena and Kohane, who were resting in the council office by the gate exit, were horrified to see me dash in.
“Whoa?! [Start]?!”
“Is the setup already done…?!”
“Sorry!”
I jumped out the window, transformed back, and dashed towards Shinjuku in casual clothes.
Thump thump thump
I was breathless, and my heart felt like it was about to burst.
“Ha… Ha…!”
While I had been a magical girl and sprinted many times, I had never been this breathless.
No.
It was because I knew she was waiting for me.
The fact that I knew her made my heart feel like it would explode.
We… all…
‘We’ll be happy.’
That one phrase from Yuki, to the young and immature Hyeonwoo, was a gentle comfort.
A few words imprinted in ink within the light novel seeped into my heart.
[We will all be happy.]
Yuki.
I can reach out to you, who was crying beyond the page.
I can reach out to you, who knows the despair-laden future.
I had so much to say to the wounded girl I met when I was 15.
You know, Yuki.
I’ve known you for a long time.
I wanted to see the real you shine, not the fake glowing version of myself.
Hah!
Whoosh!
“Whoa?! That’s dangerous!”
“Are you a magical girl? Be careful!”
“I’m gonna report this to the security team!”
I jumped over the crowded pedestrian bridge stairs in one go. It was common for magical girls to do actions like this in a hurry, so everyone ignored my complaints.
‘Yuki…!’
Since the world had already changed,
a world altered to save people.
I thought you’d be doing well and didn’t look for you.
I figured we’d meet naturally someday.
I left you, who knew the lonely, wounded future all alone in the changed world.
[Please find me.]
I’m sorry. I was too careless.
[I need a place where I can belong.]
I’ll be that for you.
“I am…”
*
“Will you… come find me?”
Yuki was sitting on a park bench.
In front of the [Alliance Refuge] that would be built in a future that doesn’t exist since the changed past.
I regretted the words I blurted out in a moment of doubt.
In hindsight, it didn’t make sense.
Even if the past had changed dramatically, the foundation for those words was too flimsy.
Fujimoto had always been the ruler of Japan, a being that had to fight to protect the magical girls.
The Scavengers were heinous criminals who killed both ordinary people and magical girls, so stopping them was only natural.
‘…Thinking we’d share the same future was overly delusional.’
Sigh
Yuki sighed, pulling her knees up on the bench.
“I should have just said I wanted to meet normally…”
She had always been like this.
Just thoughtlessly, with no basis.
‘…That’s why no one believes me.’
Was it because of the long period spent without friends due to her burns?
‘…Honestly, it wasn’t just because of the burns.’
Timidity.
Delusions of grandeur.
A fool.
[Are you still saying things like that?]
[There’s no hope in this world.]
[We’re all just going to devour each other anyway.]
[Please shut your mouth.]
[You’re the only one who thinks that.]
[We’re all done for.]
Destruction.
The end.
‘Why did someone like me have to be the last one remaining?’
I knew it; it was just that I had the luck to bloom [Resurrection], and even if I wanted to die, I couldn’t.
If someone like me hadn’t been left behind but a magnificent person like [Start], then…
On the throne of the destroyed world sat a solitary figure.
On a quiet park bench sat a lonely girl.
That was the only thing that had changed.
‘Still… I want to meet…’
[Magical girls bloom through dreams!]
[…Magical girls exist to give hope.]
Yes. That’s right.
I believe that too…
Thank you for letting everyone know.
Thank you for changing my inexperienced second start with gentle hands.
“So… I want to meet…”
Yuki murmured quietly, lowering her head.
In the quiet park, only silence lingered…
Tap tap tap!
Startled
Yuki tensed, burying her face in her knees.
There had been no one in this park for a while.
An ominous presence.
If she looked up, would there be [Start]?
‘No… it’s probably just someone jogging…’
The person approaching wasn’t [Start], and she would go home lonely to have dinner and sleep.
Thump thump thump
Then she’d probably let out an awkward laugh, thinking, “Ah, what a nonsensical assumption…”
Thump thump thump
…But why was her heart pounding so hard?
Yuki slowly lifted her head.
Black pants.
Black hoodie.
Baseball cap.
Silver hair.
The silver-haired girl took off her baseball cap.
The cold winter wind made her silver hair shine dazzlingly.
Her slender eyes were covered with long eyelashes that seemed spun from silver threads.
Eyes.
A girl who looked like snow.
Yuki thought that the beautiful girl, far more splendid than her, suited the name Yuki (雪).
That girl understood her words and came searching for her.
She found Yuki, crossing over a painful future and changed past.
“…Yuki.”
“…[Start]?”
Ah.
She knows me…
She knows the changed past…
[Start] spoke with a watery expression.
“My name is… Hikari.”
Through trembling eyelashes, her red pupils were visible.
Light.
“…Hikari.”
“Hey, I know it sounds ridiculous, but… can you listen to me?”
“…Yes.”
It’s okay; I’m used to nonsense.
But my throat tightened, and Yuki couldn’t say those words.
Hikari grasped Yuki’s hand with her trembling fingers.
At that moment when Yuki met her warm hand, tears began to flow.
She rose slowly from the bench, tears flowing.
The once lonely girl was no longer alone.
“I’ve known you for a really long time…”
“…Yes.”
It sounds really absurd, but Yuki’s heart felt like it would burst.
That ridiculous statement melted past wounds within Yuki’s heart.
Thump thump thump
“I believed in your words. I trusted your words more than the end of the destroyed world.”
“…Yes.”
“I could change, thanks to your words and the world you live in.”
“…Yes.”
“Thank you. Watching you fight gave me so much strength.”
“…Yes.”
“I’ve wanted to be friends with you for a long time…”
“…Yes.”
Thump thump thump
Yuki felt that the warmth of the hands she held and the sound of her heart, racing to the brink, made this park as quiet as the world of destruction. It was, without a doubt, a world filled with hope, bursting with noise—she was going to protect that.
But at least, just for now…
…It felt like only the two of them were left in this world.
Thump thump thump
Hikari smiled brightly while crying.
“So we will surely…”
Yuki also smiled brightly while crying.
[We will surely be happy.]
A girl who came from a past three years ago and a girl who came from a future two years later.
The two met for the first time, sharing memories of a future that no longer existed while transcending the changed past.
Believing in the happiness that is sure to come.
The pain that began on a hot summer day returned with warm hands over the cold winter.
Yuki was so joyful that all she could do was cry.
“We will surely be happy.”
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